ARRI announced that its technology and services were used in six Academy Award-winning films. The 96th Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024, and many nominees used ARRI cameras in production.
Oscar-Nominated Films Shot on ARRI
As a camera designer and manufacturer, ARRI always pays close attention to Achievement in Cinematography. For 2024, three of the five nominated films in the Academy Awards for Achievement in Cinematography category were shot at least in part with ARRI cameras.
Nominated films include “El Conde,” shot by DP Edward Lachman, ASC; “Killers of the Flower Moon,” shot by Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC; and “Poor Things” shot by Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC. This year’s Academy Award winner went to “Oppenheimer,” which was shot by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, NSC FSF, and ASC.
Academy Award for Cinematography
Four of this year’s five cinematography nominees were shot on film. ARRI analog cameras ARRICAM ST (Studio) and ARRICAM LT (Light) were the most popular tools at this year’s Academy Awards. In addition, all five films use a combination of color and black-and-white footage, to varying degrees.
The only nominee to be shot digitally, “El Conde,” is entirely black and white, up to the last colorful sequence. “Oppenheimer,” “Maestro,” and “Poor Things” all use black and white to signal different timelines or enhance states of mind. “Killers of the Flower Moon” has the least amount of black-and-white footage, faithfully simulating the black-and-white newsreels of the Osage Nation (shot on Martin Scorsese’s 1917 Bell & Howell 2709 camera).
Best Cinematography Category
Pablo Larraín’s black comedy/horror film “El Conde” was nominated for Best Cinematography and was the only film in that category to be shot digitally. Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Edward Lachman, ASC used ALEXA Mini LF Monochrome provided by ARRI Rental. Lachman has a reputation for projects shot on analog film, but this time he chose digital because there was no film lab near his location in Chile. Also, most of the film was in black and white.
In an interview with ARRI Rental, Edward Lachman commented:
I thought the abstract and aloof nature of black and white photography was appropriate. The film uses the vampire genre as a literal and metaphorical way to tell a story about Chile’s political upheaval in the 1970s.
ARRI Rental provided two ALEXA Mini LF Monochrome prototype cameras to the production in time for the start of principal photography. The success of this project prompted ARRI Rental to roll out the model more widely, and it is now available for rental from facilities around the world, along with the existing ALEXA XT Monochrome and ALEXA 65 Monochrome models.
Best Director Oscar Nominees
Two Academy Awards nominee films shot with ARRI that were nominated for Best Cinematography, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things,” were also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. In fact, three of the five films nominated for Best Director used ARRI.
From the plastic fantasy Barbie to a faithful recreation of the 1920s Osage Reservation in Oklahoma, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto ASC (AMC) created Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon. For the latter, veteran director Martin Scorsese worked with Prieto on a variety of mostly analog cameras.
This true-to-life western epic used a combination of analog and digital cameras, but was primarily shot on 35mm film using ARRICAM ST and LT cameras.
In an interview with British Cinematographer magazine, cinematographer Prieto commented on how ARRICAM conveyed the right tones for the film:
I try not to influence the director. In this case, I think shooting film with ARRICAM captured the best colors.
ARRI lighting was also used behind the scenes for Killers of the Flower Moon, with 18K ARRIMAX used when more intensity was needed, and SkyPanel S360 and S60 used for some interior lighting.
Poor Things
Poor Things, the second film from director Yorgos Lanthimos and Robbie Ryan’s creative collaboration, premiered just days before winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won four, including Best Actress and Best Production Design.
For “Poor Things,” shot on 35mm film, Ryan used camera, lighting and grip equipment provided by ARRI Rental. Extensive lens testing was also conducted with the help of ARRI Rental. The main camera for the film was an analog ARRICAM ST, and an ARRICAM LT was also used as a second camera. Like the film’s protagonist, Ryan’s camera work is bold. Extreme wide-angle shots, impressive zooms, and unique vignetting “porthole” effects abound, ensuring the audience is never forgotten as a voyeur peering into another world.
The film’s visuals convey a fantastical story, and the cinematographer used a variety of looks to enhance key scenes. ARRI Lighting also contributed various sets for the film, including SkyPanel S360 and S60 and BrikLoks.
In an interview with ARRI Rentals, gaffer Andy Cole described how he and his fellow gaffer Gromek Molnar Jr. lit dramatic scenes at sea:
We installed the LED wall on the ship at Origo Studios in Budapest. We surrounded the ship with approximately 100 SkyPanel S60s and used 15 to 20 large S360 SkyPanels to illuminate the glass roof and large rear windows.
The Lisbon set primarily used 800 SkyPanels.
Six of the 10 Academy Awards Best Picture nominees used ARRI equipment.
ARRI equipment was used in “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Poor Things.” In the end, the Oscar for Best Picture went to Oppenheimer.
For “American Fiction,” cinematographer Christina Dunlap used the ALEXA Mini LF. In an interview with ARRI, cinematographer Dunlap talks about her technical choices, commenting that she prefers the ALEXA camera for its skin tone rendition and reliability.
I love ARRI and shooting with an ARRI camera is always my first choice just for skin tones.
Additionally, I knew we would be shooting many different ranges of skin tones and often didn’t have as much control outside, so having a versatile dynamic range that I knew was important.
The film’s crew also relied on ARRI lighting, including ARRI Daylight Fresnel.
In the summer of 2023, “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. DP Simon Beaufill shot this modern legal thriller using an ALEXA Mini LF camera. To the surprise of many, the film was not selected by the French jury to represent France in the Best Foreign Film category.
However, the French film has received international attention after director and co-writer Justine Triet was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. This is the ninth time this year that a woman has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, and Torrier is only the eighth woman in Academy history (Jane Campion has been nominated twice). In the end, director Torrier won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Barbie Shot on Arri
Barbie, perhaps the most talked-about movie of 2023, set out to transport audiences to a whole new pink world that felt both artificial and real. To create this otherworldly world, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto ASC, AMC employed an ARRI Rental large-format camera, the ARRI ALEXA 65.
Rodrigo Prieto explains the process of creating Barbie’s visual language: We had to think of a way to express three-dimensionality and depth through color, so we used a camera with a large sensor, the ALEXA 65. The larger the sensor, the shallower the depth of field. Like a miniature, but not exactly, like a daytime appearance, but not exactly. So there always needed to be a balance between something artificial and yet somehow feeling authentic to the world.
Another challenge was how to differentiate between the film’s two very different locations: the eternally sunny Barbie Land and the “real world.” To that end, ARRI SkyPanels were used to light scenes set in real-life Los Angeles. ARRI Rental also provided camera, lighting, and grip equipment.
The Holdovers
The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne, was also shot at ARRI and is a Best Picture nominee with four Academy Award nominations. After testing various analogue cameras, Danish DP Aegir Brild decided to shoot digitally with the ALEXA Mini to faithfully capture Da’vine Joy Randolph and Paul Giamatti’s winning performances.
Best International Feature and Best Short
Two other categories that utilized ARRI equipment and services were Best International Feature Film and Best Live-Action Short Film. Three of the five films nominated for Best International Feature Film were shot on ARRI. Cinematographer Paolo Carnera AIC uses ALEXA Mini LF and ARRI Signature Primes for Italy’s Io Capitano, while Uruguayan DP Pedro Luque SCU uses ALEXA Mini LF for Spain’s Society of the Snow And at The Teachers’ Lounge in Germany, cinematographer Judith Kaufmann BVK uses the ALEXA Mini.
Two Academy Awards Nominees in the live-action short film category used ARRI cameras.
Netflix’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” directed by Wes Anderson, won the Academy Award in this category. The film was serviced by ARRI Rental and shot by Anderson’s regular DP, Robert Yeoman, using 16mm ARRIFLEX and 416 ARRI/Zeiss Ultra 16 and Master Prime lenses. For “Red, White, Blue,” cinematographer Adam Susitzky used an ARRI ALEXA 35 with a signature lens and Impression V filter to enhance the story.
